Solyndragate

by JASmius

Good grief, my mother passes away, I take a week off to mourn, and all hell breaks loose.

Fortunately, the hell is all falling upon the skinny, stooping shoulders of the scoundrel most deserving of it:

Solyndra LLC's workers making solar-power panels in a California factory subsidized by U.S. taxpayers showed "the promise of clean energy isn't just an article of faith," President Barack Obama said on a visit to the company in May 2010.

But....

Two months before Obama's visit, accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP warned that Solyndra, the recipient of $535 million in federal loan guarantees, had financial troubles deep enough to "raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

The Obama administration stood by Solyndra through the auditor's warning, the abandonment of a planned initial public offering and a last-ditch refinancing where taxpayers took a back seat to new investors. That unwavering commitment has come under increasing scrutiny since the company's travails culminated in its filing for bankruptcy protection on September 6th and a raid on its headquarters by the Federal Bureau of Investigation two days later.

"People including our government put blinders on and did not want to believe in the obvious," Jonathan Dorsheimer, an analyst in Boston for Canaccord Genuity Inc. of Vancouver, said in an interview with Bloomberg Government. "The fact that the government chose Solyndra as their white horse is mind-boggling."

Is it? We're talking about paganesque eco-zealots and socialist utopians who believe themselves the repository of all knowledge and wisdom, on a such a highly evolved plain as to be gods in human form, and who, naturally, know what's best for the rest of us far better than we ever could. Like all blind guides and false religious extremists, they cannot be convinced that their ideological nostrums don't work, no matter how many times they're tried and fail, and their very ids are so completely invested in them that they would rather die and take everybody else down with them than commit the philosophical suicide of admit the bankruptcy of their cherished, venerated worldview.

And why do that when they can always roll out their favorite scapegoat:

Selection of companies to receive U.S. backing are "merit-based decisions made by career staffers at the Department of Energy, and the process for this particular loan guarantee began under President George W. Bush," Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement September 1st.

There's just one teeny, tiny problem with that thoroughly flaggelated equine, though - it's pretty much horsecrap, as the Bushkins didn't approve Solyndra's loan guarantees. Indeed, it was Energy Secretary Steven Chu who speeding the approval of applications for their federal backing the centerpiece of his Senate confirmation hearing on the grounds that the previous administration had been shamefully foot-dragging on this supposed "green jobs" panacea that Solyndra was supposed to exemplify.

I have to admit, it's fascinating to watch these greenstremists now frantically trying to "share the credit" for their environmentalist piety now that it's blown up on their faces like a stinkbomb. It's also highly entertaining, especially when you factor in the fanatical depths of their not-so-quasi-religious commitment:

The August 2009 e-mails, released toThe Washington Post, show White House officials repeatedly asking OMB reviewers when they would be able to decide on the federal loan and noting a looming press event at which they planned to announce the deal. In response, OMB officials expressed concern that they were being rushed to approve the company's project without adequate time to assess the risk to taxpayers, according to the e-mails, which were provided by Republican congressional investigators...

One e-mail from an OMB official referred to "the time pressure we are under to sign-off on Solyndra." Another complained, "There isn't time to negotiate."

"We have ended up with a situation of having to do rushed approvals on a couple of occasions (and we are worried about Solyndra at the end of the week)," one official wrote. That August 31, 2009, message, written by a senior OMB staffer and sent to Terrell P. McSweeny, Biden's domestic policy adviser, concluded, "We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due diligence reviews."...

The White House pressure may have had a "tangible impact" on OMB's risk assessment of the loan, the congressional investigators concluded.

In one e-mail, an OMB staff member questioned whether the review team was using the best model for determining the financial risk to taxpayers in evaluating the Solyndra deal.

"[G]iven the time pressure we are under to sign-off on Solyndra, we don't have time to change the model," the staffer wrote.

Hmmm; it's almost as if the Obamunists knew this was a hopeless boondoggle and were bent on bums-rushing it through before anybody could catch on to that fact. Which seems all that much more obvious given the vehemence of their contrived denials.

If this sounds like more than can even be accounted for by blind ideological zealotry, that's because your ears are hearing correctly. Or, as the old saying goes, follow the money - back to the Newsmax story:And guess who the Regime placed first in line in Solyndra's bankruptcy process? Hint: Not the taxpayers.The bottom line? Solyndra and the White House knowingly conspired to defraud and rip off the American taxpayers in pursuit of a corrupt enviroscheme that never had a prayer of working. Because, naturally, they know everything.No wonder the GOP sees gold in them thar solar panels. It isn't just a partisan opportunity; it's their patriotic duty.

Since then, Republicans have pointed to connections between Solyndra and billionaire George Kaiser, an Obama campaign fundraiser. The George Kaiser Family Foundation, a charitable organization based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, holds about 36.7% of the company, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kaiser made 16 visits to the president's aides since 2009, according to White House visitor logs

And guess who the Regime placed first in line in Solyndra's bankruptcy process? Hint: Not the taxpayers.

The bottom line? Solyndra and the White House knowingly conspired to defraud and rip off the American taxpayers in pursuit of a corrupt enviroscheme that never had a prayer of working. Because, naturally, they know everything.

No wonder the GOP sees gold in them thar solar panels. It isn't just a partisan opportunity; it's their patriotic duty.

[cross-posted @ Hard Starboard]